Ok, so I have significantly missed my goal

of eating a can of soup and reviewing it every day. What can I say, I’ve been busy. But I have eaten a soup every day that I have been home for lunch and have so far sampled 12 out of 15 soups. I’m not going to review each one independently, but I’ll give you the highlights. The only one I haven’t cared for so far is the Manhattan Clam Chowder. I have never been a big fan of clams, so part of it is just me, but I also thought it wasn’t seasoned well. The broth tasted like tomato juice, and the vegetables were mushy, and the clams were chewy. All in all, nothing to recommend it.

There were a couple of varieties that I liked, but not as much as I could have. These were mainly the ones that had beef, especially the Italian Meatball. The broth was flavorful, the vegetables and pasta were perfectly cooked, and there was an adequate supply of the meatballs, but they were dense, flavorless little balls of meat. They could have been a lot bigger and a lot better seasoned. I personally like big, fluffy meatballs that fall apart a bit in the soup. The varieties with pieces of steak in them were a little better, but there still wasn’t much beefy taste, although again the rest of the soup was great.

The vegetable soups have all been excellent, as have the chicken varieties. My favorites have been the Southwestern Vegetable – nice and spicy – and the French Onion – excellent sweet onion flavor. And best of all, both soups have so few calories that I ate the whole can and still had to add extras to bring the meal up to my 200 calorie goal. I crumbled a few tortilla chips on top of the Southwestern Vegetable, and added half a whole wheat biscuit and a slice of reduced fat cheese to the French Onion.

And the absolute best of all was the Chicken and Barley. It was the best canned soup I have ever eaten – thick and rich, very filling, and with excellent flavor. It needed nothing added and kept me satisfied for hours.

Thanks again to Progresso and MyBlogSpark for having me try out these soups – I hope you enjoy them too!